


East Winds

by Cute_Little_Riddle



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Arkham (Video Games), Batman: Arkham - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:12:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27470263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cute_Little_Riddle/pseuds/Cute_Little_Riddle
Summary: After the death of his wife, Edward cannot forget her. Every attempt to take a step forward causes pain.
Relationships: Edward Nygma/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 11





	East Winds

Without the many children it became increasingly lonely in the former manor, which had experienced its owners in constant change over the decades and was finally restructured from a residence to an orphanage. Together with those who found shelter, it would have been demolished during the time of Arkham City, because the maintenance costs were too great for the city to bear- they didn’t even wanted to.

  
  


Before Edward imprisonment he had discussed his plans with her. His fortune was sufficient and there were enough rooms in the building that both of them and their expected children would find their longed-for home there.

  
  


Thus he contacted Sherman Fine, who had before brokered countless properties, warehouses and buildings for him. The broker had an easy job after the city council believed that they could not sell this property even at the lowest cost. With a fortnight's notice to buy, Sherman invited the couple to visit the property.

  
  


At that time, the orphans had not yet found a second home. When the three entered the building, they were initially eyed anxiously, until it was increasingly noticed that the unknown ones approached to them with benevolence.

  
  


When she had taken a little boy in her arms, he had been convinced to make this property their own. When the little boy finally asked his wife to adopt him - his eyes reflected the suffering they both had experienced - he could not turn back. This was now their home. They would adopt every little loving soul. They would become one big family. She got the life she deserved after all her efforts. And he...

  
  


_„Na einai kalytero anthropo apo ton patera tou_ “, he heard her voice and shrank from his dreams.

  
  


_That he might become a better man than his own father._

  
  


Sitting at his desk, the memory remained, although he tried to wipe the sleeping sand from his eyes with force and thus push the past away.

  
  


He remembered how they returned to their apartment and barely a day later Sherman stood at the door and held the deed of ownership out to him. The city council wanted to meet the generous new owner after all, he announced. Edward declined, because the City had not been interested in the property and the children in it before, now they should be surprised to learn who it actually belonged to.

  
  


Smiling, he turned to his wife and held the ownership certificate out to her. Both their names were printed. They only had to sign.

  
  


The building was theirs before Arkham City and Edward had hoped they could move in as soon as he found a way out. He had not expected the outcome of this cruel power play. He had never expected the death of his wife.

  
  


The memory faded. He was relieved. After all, it caused him great pain every time.

  
  


With clear thoughts he began to continue his work on the blueprints.

  
  


But the new silence did not last long.

  
  


Edward was alone in the big building. He himself had led the children to the vicinity of the buses that were used to take them and the rest of the inhabitants of Gotham City out of the city and evacuate them.

  
  


He could have kept them with him. Crane could have given them a vaccine for the toxin as he himself had received it. But he did not have the heart to lead his loving ones close to the breaking point of the abyss again.

  
  


As long as he was surrounded by them, he had sometimes not even thought of them.

  
  


But now...

  
  


He was alone. Alone. And yet he felt their hearty laughter echoing off the walls.

  
  


_„I that am lost, oh who will find me? Deep down below the old beech tree.”_

  
  


With his hands clenched in fists and striking the table, Edward rose from his concentration in the same movement.

  
  


"Please!" he cried out hoarsely. "Silence. Just for a moment."

  
  


His voice trembled. No one knew Edward Nygma in this condition. When, driven by grief after her death - and taking advantage of Joker's passing - he rose above Gotham, bringing Batman and Robin into one of his most dangerous games, from which he emerged triumphant, no one would have believed what was inside this man. In the course of a moment, this man's heart had been broken. He was broken.

  
  


_„Help succour me now the east winds blow.”_

  
  


"Darling," she spoke softly and approached him. "Forgive me. I kept you waiting."

  
  


Her voice echoed in his thoughts.

  
  


How he longed for her.

  
  


Edward sat back in the chair and watched as she came towards him.

  
  


Only a moment separated him from her. He wanted to put his arms around her waist and pull her towards him. He would push her shirt up, expose her belly and give her gentle kisses. She would lay her head back and start to give soft tones of pleasure. He would want to pull her onto his lap and capture her soft lips whit his as he gently stroked her hair.

  
  


But while she was still coming towards him, the sound system was overturning and he was drawn out of his thoughts. Yet she was still in the room with him.

  
  


As from the loudspeakers, the voice of his hostage came out and called him by that nickname he had hated since childhood. For it was just another cruel memory that would never let him go.

  
  


"I wonder when she will understand that she should stop calling you that," his wife announced with a sigh as she moved towards the monitor and looked at the recording with interest.

  
  


"I have learned to block out these hurtful words from the others," Edward told her.

  
  


Nodding, she turned to him.

  
  


"But there's one thing you can't suppress. What is it?", she asked him laughing.

  
  


She was his deepest self. She was the painful truth.

  
  


"You!"

  
  


Giggling, she crossed her arms behind her back.

  
  


"I think I heard the door," she spoke softly and amusedly, as if it was all just a game.

  
  


"It's time, my Riddler. Solve the final problem."

  
  


Edward followed her to the camera. He positioned himself at the mark he had put on the floor when he had practiced all his moves.

  
  


The camera flashed, indicating that his actions were being recorded. Although he spoke, he could not see into the camera at first and thus address his guests.

  
  


He looked at what was happening behind the camera.

  
  


Humming, she took a chair and positioned it centrally in the room and climbed on it. Only now he did notice the rope hanging from the ceiling. She waited. Waiting for him to take care of the final problem.

  
  


_“Sixteen by six… and under we go!”_

  
  


Sometimes he wondered how far what he perceived reflected the actual reality.


End file.
